I remember my sister’s funny experience in the hospital… My sister (who‘s also a nurse) was assigned in the emergency room. She asked the patient’s watcher to go get his patient a gown. Like most of the hospitals in our place, the watchers were the ones to secure their patient’s hospital gown. So she told the watcher “mister, you can now go and get your patient’s gown there”, pointing to the linen section. Since my sister was so busy and had to attend to another patient, she did not bother to ask why the watcher seemed so hesitant in going. After 30 minutes of waiting, my sister noticed that the watcher was back with no gown. The watcher then went to her, and with very worried eyes, he asked “Ma’am, is the gown really necessary?”.. “Yes of course mister” she answered. “Ma’am I’m afraid, I can’t afford to provide one right now, coz when we got married, her gown was only rented” he admitted in all innocence and honesty My sister couldn’t afford to laugh; her heart was so broken with pity.

ANOTHER FUNNY EXPERIENCE A urine specimen was gathered for urine analysis.. Since the watchers are the ones to submit their patient’s urine sample to the laboratory the nurse instructed the watcher..” Mister, please show this to the station and ask for urinalysis request”.. He then went as directed. The watcher went back after an hour still holding the urine sample..He told the nurse “Ma’am, the police at the station told me that they don’t accept urine specimens. They told me to bring it back here”. The nurse didn’t know how to react.

LESSON LEARNED: In directing people, especially those coming from remote places, never expect them to understand you and follow your direction right away.. So to avoid bloopers like this, always make detailed and clear directions.

One Response to Hospital Bloopers

OMG, I feel your pain. I interned in the emergency room and nurse facility as a patient care tech, and a lot of times patients rather do things there own way. I have a similar problem, where I assist the patient in putting his gown on, but he rather take it off and run around naked. It apparently made him feel free, then again he was a psych patient so it was understandable.